


Little Red

by MissK216



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Family, Fluff, Friendship, Protective Lance, eventual Klance, klance, little keith
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-09-08
Updated: 2019-01-21
Packaged: 2019-07-08 09:02:11
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 6
Words: 8,497
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15927176
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MissK216/pseuds/MissK216
Summary: In an accident involving the cryopods Keith ends up being aged down to about four or five years old. It's up to the other Paladins to figure out how to get him back to normal. During all of this, one Paladin really steps up and becomes Keith's protector while he is unable to care for himself. {Note: Little Keith will not have a romantic pairing. Cross-posted on fanfiction.net}





	1. Chapter 1

A/N: So this sort of has no set timeline in regards to the show, but I would say it happens after Lance is attacked by Sendak, but before Shiro is kidnapped and swapped out with the clone.

\---

"I can't believe I got stuck cleaning the healing pods!" Keith groaned as he looked the machine in question up and down. Pidge glanced at him from across the room and rolled her eyes. She was trying to work and Keith's constant whining had definitely been making that a lot harder.

"Maybe if you stopped complaining and actually started doing some work it wouldn't seem so bad." She told him shortly, adjusting the glasses on her face. Keith turned to look at her then, using this as another distraction to delay his chores. He walked over to where Pidge's computer was synced up with the control panel on one of the cryopods.

"What are you even doing in here?" He asked, picking up one of the wires and examining it before he let it fall back into place again. This struck a nerve with Pidge, she was normally very patient, but she couldn't stand when people touched her stuff.

"I'm trying to see if there's a way to speed up the healing time on the pods." She sighed, trying to dumb down the science of it for Keith. "It's great that we have the pods, but do you remember how long it took for Lance to heal after he got hurt in that fight with Sendak?"

"I remember." Keith said too quickly. He liked Lance, a lot, but hadn't worked up the courage to tell him and he thought the rest of the team was too oblivious to notice his secret crush since he was always arguing with the boy in question over something stupid. The week Lance had been in the cryopods was one of the longest weeks of Keith's life. He constantly went into the room to check on Lance and make sure his vitals were stable and that the strange technology hadn't done anything to hurt him. Pidge pulled Keith out of his thoughts by continuing her explanation.

"If one of us gets hurt in a fight and needs a pod to get better, the Galra might not always wait a week to attack again. The faster we can safely heal each other, the better it'll be in the long run." She shrugged like the idea should have just been common sense.

"Well, I guess that's a good point." Keith mused, thinking about it a little more as he moved to look over Pidge's shoulder at the computer screen. "So how does it work?" He asked, raising an eyebrow at the formulas and sequences Pidge was going over. He was definitely more of a pilot than a mathematician.

"I just started out a couple of days ago, I'm in the early stages of gathering the information I need to- what are you doing?" Pidge's eyes followed Keith as he walked around her to the pod.

"I'm just looking." He answered as he peeked inside the pod at all the flashing buttons. Pidge pinched the bridge of her nose, she was over it.

"Keith! Just go back to cleaning like you're supposed to be doing. You've been down here for an hour and haven't done a single thing yet!"

"So? I'm not hurting anything." Keith retorted, circling around the outside of the pod, hanging on one of the bars with one hand as he let himself pivot around it. The simple action in itself would have been enough to make Pidge stop working in favor of finding Shiro to come pull some law and order on Keith, but to make matters worse Keith's foot caught on a wire as he came back around. He threw his arms out to catch himself before he fell, his hand falling to press a million different buttons before he fell into the pod and the glass came down. Pidge's eyes went wide then and she instantly abandoned her laptop and rushed to the glass. Keith pounded on it, fear in his normally hard eyes as he realized he couldn't get it open.

"Keith!" Pidge tried to press the release button, but nothing happened. She pressed her palms against the glass and tried to get Keith's attention. "I'm going to get you out! Don't worry!" She promised him, though he couldn't hear anything through the glass.

"Get me out of here! Let me out!" Keith screamed, suddenly starting to feel very sleepy. Slowly he stopped banging on the glass and his frantic cries became faint mumbles until they stopped all together and he was asleep.

Pidge rested her head against the glass once Keith slumped over, she was going to be in a world of trouble over this if she didn't get it figured out. She took a minute to collect herself before she started trying to figure out what sequences Keith had plugged into the machine, but she was met with her first obstacle right away… Keith had crashed her computer by entering so many codes at once. Pidge groaned, this couldn't possibly get any worse. She spent hours trying to get her computer back up and running, but she'd lost what she'd been working on that day. Of course she had backups from the previous day, but she'd lost her progress from that point on and would have to start the day's work all over again just to catch up to where she was before Keith fell.

Hours into Pidge trying to retrace her work the cryopod hissed and she looked up, she hadn't been expecting the machine to let Keith out any time soon. She wasn't going to miss the opportunity to get her friend out though, she hurried to the pod and her heart lurched when she saw Keith. The boy had been shrunken down to the size of a toddler, maybe four years old. Little Keith yawned and rubbed the sleep out of his eyes, not yet aware of what was happening as Pidge took him out of the pod before the glass closed again and she couldn't get to him.

"Keith?" She asked, holding her breath as she waited for a response. The boy blinked up at her and his face contorted into one of fear, tears prickling at his eyes. He had no idea who Pidge was and he was scared. Pidge cringed a little as he started crying, she was definitely not the right person to be left in charge of kids. "Shh! Keith it's okay!" She tried frantically, scooping him up and bouncing him on her hip to hopefully get him to calm down a little bit. It took a few minutes to get him to stop crying and as soon as he did Pidge hurried around the castle to look for the others, she needed help on this one. When she finally found everyone they were all sitting down in the common room doing various things. Shiro was talking to Allura about how Altean Crystals worked, Hunk and Coran were swapping recipes for the space goo, and Lance was trying to teach the mice how to do a few new tricks. When Pidge walked in all eyes turned to her as she set Keith down. The poor boy looked terrified as the five sets of new eyes landed on him. He sniffed hard and rubbed his eyes as tears pricked at them again. Lance frowned and immediately went to him, crouching down beside him. Sure Keith was his rival, but he hated to see a child upset.

"Hey buddy, it's okay. Please don't be sad." He whispered, running a hand through Keith's hair, he knew how to care for children because of all the time he spent looking after his siblings and cousins back at home. Keith sniffled and hurried into Lance's arms, hugging him hard as he cried. Lance wrapped the little boy up tight and looked at Pidge asking the question everyone else wanted to know the answer to. "What happened?"


	2. Chapter 2

Pidge took a deep breath after she finished explaining what had happened with the cryopods. The others had all listened quietly and let her finish, but as soon as she did there was an awkward silence that followed. She chewed her lip and wrung her hands a bit. “So yeah, that’s where we’re at. Keith has somehow been shrunken down to four years old and he doesn’t remember anything about his regular life.” 

“He doesn’t remember anything at all?” Hunk asked Pidge as he looked to the little boy holding onto Lance. Keith wasn’t paying any attention to a word the others were saying, he was content to listen to Lance’s soft humming and to rub the fabric of the older boy’s jacket between his fingers. 

“Shh, you’re okay now buddy.” Lance whispered once Keith finally closed his eyes. The toddler’s sobs from earlier had slowed and turned into sporadic little hiccups as Lance rocked him calmly against his chest. It wasn’t long before Keith was fast asleep. “Are you sure he doesn’t remember anything?” Lance asked, repeating Hunk’s question. Pidge held her hands up at a loss, she didn’t know for sure. 

“It’s sort’ve too soon to really tell, but he didn’t know who I was when I finally got him out of the pod.” She watched the way Keith rested against Lance so easily and she sighed, remembering a conversation she’d overheard a while back between their normal Keith and Shiro regarding Lance. “I could argue that he couldn’t have lost everything, it must just be locked out of his memory for his own protection… like when people who are involved in bad accidents can’t remember anything from it. I think he may still have some sort of emotional attachment to certain things he had a strong connection to before, but other than that…” She shook her head, at a loss once again.

“Well what are we going to do now? We can’t exactly fight the Galra while one fifth of Voltron is too busy sucking his thumb to pilot!” Allura snapped, she was stressed out by the whole situation. Lance frowned then, he didn’t appreciate Allura’s skewed priorities. 

“Hey, wait a minute! The Galra should be the least of our concerns right now.” He rubbed Keith’s back gently as he spoke, trying to keep the boy calm while he slept. “Finding a way to fix this so we can form Voltron again is important, I don’t deny that, but Keith is important too! He’s just a little kid right now, he comes first!” Lance was adamant about it. “Keith is our top priority right now. Sendak, Zarkon, and all the rest of them are going to have to wait.” Shiro put a hand up to silence the two of them before things escalated.

“Lance has a point.” Shiro agreed, looking to the child who had become so much like a little brother to him over the years. He always felt very paternal towards him, but especially now that he was so young and vulnerable. “We need to keep him safe and make sure he stays out of trouble.” 

“I’ll do it.” Lance volunteered without hesitation. “Keith seems to trust me right now and I think one of the most important things in this situation should be making sure he feels like he has someone he’s safe with.”

“But I thought you and Keith hated each other. You just don’t get along.” Hunk interrupted, a little unsure of his words for whatever reason. “I mean you two are always at each other’s throats fighting over nonsense.” He looked at the others, they couldn’t disagree with him. Lance looked like he wanted to argue, but Hunk went on. “All I’m saying is that you can’t let some stupid rivalry get in the way of caring for him. He’s going to need a lot of help.” Hunk counted off on his fingers. “He’ll need someone to tuck him in, someone to help him eat, to help with dressing and undressing himself, bathing… who knows if he can even go to the bathroom on his own.” 

“I don’t hate Keith!” Lance snapped and hugged the little boy closer to him. He wasn’t going to let anyone separate him and Keith right now. “I have never, ever hated Keith!” He told the five other people in the room adamantly. He didn’t hate him, not by a long shot, but he was going to put all of that aside for now… it wasn’t the time. “I know what I’m doing! I helped take care of all my younger siblings, my nieces and nephews, and even some of my cousins while they were around this age.” He ran a hand through Keith’s messy hair and looked at him softly for a moment before he shook his head. “I’ve got him.” He said more softly. The others looked to one another knowingly.

“Alright, well if you feel that strongly about it, you can watch over him.” Shiro sighed, it wasn’t easy for him to say that after it had been his job to take care of Keith for so long. “Just… do the right thing by him, okay?” Shiro knew Keith’s past but he was hesitant to share it with the rest of the group, he knew that Keith would be pissed at him if he did that. 

“I will Shiro, don’t worry.” Lance told him softly. Coran nodded, looking to Lance then. 

“I think we must have a few pairs of clothes that’ll fit Keith for now, maybe Allura could try to find them for you. Of course, if he’s going to be like this for any length of time we could always stop at the space mall again.” 

“Good idea.” Pidge said, pushing her glasses up on her nose as she started thinking about how she was going to fix this. “While Allura’s doing that I’m going to work on getting back the information I lost on my computer. I’ll try to isolate the codes Keith entered so that hopefully I can fix this.” 

Hunk immediately nodded, his mind switching over to his science side. “I’ll do anything I can to help, Pidge.” Coran nodded too, standing up from his place on the couch. 

“I’ll be happy to help too Number Five. I’ve never heard of the pods de-aging anybody like this before, but I’m sure if anyone’s up to the challenge it’s us!” He told Pidge optimistically. The three of them started back down to the med bay where the pods were located, talking science as they went. 

“I suppose I’ll go look for those clothes now.” Allura sighed, she was having a hard time accepting that her worry about a Galra attack had been outweighed by the group’s concern over taking care of Keith. “Shiro, will you go to the control room and monitor the Galra presence in the surrounding areas? Even if we can’t form Voltron, we cannot leave ourselves vulnerable to an attack.” Shiro nodded to appease the princess. 

“Of course. After you bring Lance the clothes for Keith why don’t you come down there and we can talk about what our strategy will be if there is an attack while Keith is too little to help us fight.” Shiro wanted to dispel at least some of Allura’s worry. The princess seemed to understand this and nodded appreciatively. 

“I’ll be down to join you as soon as I can. Thank you Shiro.” With that, the two went their separate ways leaving Lance alone in the common room with the four year old Red Paladin. He sighed heavily and ran his hand through Keith’s dark hair, Lance couldn’t help but notice how soft it was. He still couldn’t believe that this had actually happened. He bent a little so his forehead was resting on top of Keith’s little head.

“Don’t worry Keith.” Lance whispered into the little boy’s hair. “I am going to be here for you. I’m going to keep you safe and make sure nothing bad ever happens to you. I’m going to protect you no matter what… for as long as it takes.” He pressed a soft kiss to the top of his head. He didn’t quite know why, but he was really torn up about this. Lance would die before he let anyone or anything harm this child. “I promise Keith.” He whispered, hugging the sleeping boy a little closer to him.


	3. Chapter 3

Keith finally woke up a couple of hours later, Lance had picked him up and moved to the couch with him so they’d be able to get more comfortable. Lance was propped up with his back resting against the arm of the couch and a book he’d downloaded onto one of Allura’s Altean tablets in his hand. Keith was in his lap with a blanket pulled up over him so he’d be nice and warm. 

“There you are sleepyhead.” Lance whispered with a soft smile, Keith looked adorable with his messy, tousled hair. He rubbed his eyes as he tried to wake up.

“Good morning.” Keith yawned softly, he slowly started to look more awake. Lance gave him some time to get his bearings before he spoke again. 

“Can you tell me your name?” Lance asked softly after a few minutes had passed, he was trying to get a baseline on what knowledge the little boy had. He was curious to see if Pidge’s theory had any truth to it.

“Keef.” The four year old announced, he seemed pretty sure of it. Lance nodded, breathing a sigh of relief. If Keith knew his name it meant that he at least remembered something, there was hope that he’d get his memory back when Pidge and the others worked everything else out. 

“Good!” Lance cheered. “You’re Keith!” He smiled big before he sobered up a little bit when he remembered he had more to ask. “Do you remember who I am, buddy?” He asked, hesitating a bit. Keith scrunched up his face a little bit as he looked at Lance, he was definitely familiar, but Keith just didn’t know. He wanted to remember him badly, anybody watching him could see as much, but it just wasn’t there.

“Papa?” Keith guessed, he knew he felt something about Lance, but he couldn’t exactly tell what it was. He frowned a little bit, ‘Papa’ didn’t really seem to fit. Lance’s eyes widened at the word and he shook his head, waving his hands frantically. 

“No, n-n-n-no! I’m not your Papa, Keith!” He panicked a little as he looked at the violet eyes staring at him as they waited for an explanation. “Uh… I’m Lance. You and I are…” Lance frowned, he didn’t even know what they were if he was being honest. Rivals was one of the common labels, but that didn’t seem right after all they’d been through, but were they friends? Lance couldn’t really say for sure, but the little boy was waiting for an answer. “We’re like… best friends.” Lance settled on, not wanting to explain their long history to a toddler. Apparently this was the right answer though because the smile that found its way onto Keith’s face was massive. 

“We’s bestest friends?!” He asked and hugged Lance tight, nuzzling into him. Lance felt his heart melt and he hugged Keith back, giving the boy a little squeeze. He wondered how this happy, carefree child could be the same short tempered, angry teenager he’d come to know. 

“Yeah buddy, we’re bestest friends.” He chuckled softly. He hoped that Keith would still be so excited about the term when he got back to normal, he liked this Keith. Keith looked at Lance happily and smiled. 

“I likes you Lancey!” He decided, peering up at him through his bangs. Lance laughed and brushed the little boy’s bangs away softly. 

“I likes you too Keithy.” He teased, standing up and putting the blanket they’d used back where it belonged. “How about we go to the kitchen and I’ll make you something to eat? You slept right through dinner time and God only knows if you ate lunch earlier.” Lance tickled Keith’s belly a little bit, the little boy giggled and wiggled in his arms as Lance played. 

“Ahh!!!” He shrieked happily, rolling every which way on the couch. “No Lancey!” He giggled and laughed for a few more minutes, his face turning a little pink from how hard he was laughing. Lance tickled the boy for a few more seconds before he finally showed mercy and stopped to let poor Keith breathe. 

“Come on little one, supper time.” Lance hummed and scooped the boy into his arms. Keith found himself fascinated by the drawstrings on Lance’s jacket and pulled on them, making them all uneven. Lance just shook his head and laughed, he thought it was adorable how engrossed in the string Keith had become. 

Once they got to the kitchen, Lance set Keith down on the floor and fixed his jacket, tying little knots at the end of his drawstrings so that they wouldn’t be able to be pulled all the way out of the hood. “Okay, let’s get some food for the baby.” He sang. Keith followed Lance all around the kitchen as he got out a couple of bowls and spoons. 

“Are we has’ing pizza?” Keith asked, pulling on the bottom of Lance’s jacket to get his attention. Lance suddenly realized that Keith probably thought he was back in Texas instead of out in the middle of space. He really hoped the little boy would tolerate eating the green space goo. Lance picked Keith up and set him down on the counter, standing in front of him so that he wouldn’t fall. 

“Nope, it’s not pizza.” He looked all around conspiratorially, like it was some big secret. “It’s better than pizza.” It wasn’t, but Lance wasn’t about to disclose that information to a four year old. Keith’s eyes were wide as he looked all around with Lance.

“Better than pizza?!” Keith squealed. “What it is?! What it is?!” He asked, looking up at Lance intently. Lance looked around once more for good measure before leaning closer to Keith and whispering to him. 

“Spaceman food.” He smiled knowingly as Keith’s excitement levels shot through the roof. 

“Spaceman food!!!” Keith yelled, practically bouncing with excitement as he waited for Lance to tell him more. “What spaceman food?!” 

“Well… it’s exactly what it sounds like. It’s food... for spacemen.” Lance was about to go into a whole story about it, but Keith interrupted and made his work easy. 

“I wants to be a spaceman!” He yelled. Lance nodded, he didn’t think he could exactly tell Keith that he’d be one of the best spacemen in the universe when he grew up again. 

“I bet you’ll be an amazing spaceman someday Keith.” Lance really did believe he was the best too, it was where their whole rivalry had stemmed from. Lance worked so hard to be a good pilot and all he ended up with was the mediocre title of cargo pilot. Meanwhile, Keith had waltzed right in to the Garrison and didn’t follow a single rule, yet he was the golden boy, the fighter pilot. Lance had realized once they became Paladins that he didn’t hate Keith because he was a better pilot… he had been jealous that Keith had gotten what he wanted, and it had come to him so easily. “Anyway…” Lance pulled himself out of his wandering thoughts. “If you want to be a spaceman, you’re going to have to practice eating what they eat.” Lance told the small boy and got two bowls full of the green goo, setting them on the table before he scooped Keith up and put him in a chair. 

“Do you has juice?” Keith asked, looking up at Lance. “I likes the apple kind the best.” He told him, hoping for that. Lance thought about it, he didn’t want to disappoint his little friend. 

“Tell you what. I’ll double check to see if we have apple juice while you start eating.” He told the small boy as he handed him a spoon. Keith tried to hold it but had a little trouble with it, he held the spoon upside down so the scoop part was facing towards the food. Lance watched as the goo mostly rolled off the curve of the spoon as Keith tried to bite it. He laughed a little.

“It’s hard!” Keith justified before he tried again with the same results. Lance sighed and took the spoon from him, feeding Keith a small bite of food. The boy considered the bite for a moment before smiling. “I’s like a real spaceman now!” He giggled. 

“Yeah! You are buddy.” Lance chuckled and scooped him another few bites, taking care to teach the little boy how to hold the utensil correctly. Once Keith got the hang of it Lance went to move to the chiller to find something resembling apple juice for the boy. He hadn’t taken more than a few steps when he heard the sound of Keith’s bowl falling to the floor and Keith’s tiny feet running towards him. 

“No Lancey!” He hugged Lance hard around his legs, the sticky food goo had splattered all over the poor boy when it fell. “Don’t leave me!” He yelled, burying his face in Lance’s legs.


	4. Chapter 4

“Oh Keithy, I’m not going to leave you.” Lance found himself saying when he saw the fear in the little boy’s eyes. He wondered where that little outburst had come from, but right now he had a bigger concern. Keith was covered in sticky goo from knocking his bowl over. With a sigh Lance picked him up and filed his questions away to ask Shiro later. “I don’t even know how you managed to get it in your hair…” 

“I not know.” Keith shook his head as he curled into Lance’s arms, he was still worked up over the idea of Lance leaving him so he was being extra clingy. The older boy sighed again, patting the toddler’s back. 

“It’s okay. Let’s just get you cleaned up first and then we can deal with this mess and I’ll give you something more to eat.” When he didn’t get any complaints regarding the idea from Keith he started down the hall to the bathroom, setting the boy down so he could fill up the tub. Keith followed Lance around as he got out a towel and face cloth, holding the hem of the older boy’s jacket as he did. Lance ran a hand through Keith’s soft hair and smiled a bit. “Don’t worry Keith, I’m not going anywhere.” He told him gently. Lance turned the water on and let Keith watch it spill into the tub while he turned to put the towel on the counter to keep it dry. When he turned back around he found Keith was up to his elbows in the water, this wouldn’t have been a problem except for the fact he still had his miniaturized red jacket on. 

“I like splashing!” Keith announced, hitting the water again. Lance sighed and shook his head with a small smile playing on his lips. Yeah, Keith was soaking the floor and walls, but he was just too adorable, and at least he wasn’t sad anymore. 

“Yeah, I can see buddy!” Lance nodded and pulled him over to help him out of his jacket. “Do you know how to do the rest by yourself?” He asked gently, he really didn’t want to have to deal with the repercussions of bathing Keith once the boy in question was returned to his normal state. Keith shook his head no. Of course not. Lance thought, he kept a smile on his face though. 

“I not know how to take baffs by myself.” Keith told him innocently. Lance sighed a little and nodded, he could do this, he really had no other option. 

“That’s okay Keithy, I’m here to help you. Just wait one second okay?” He opened the cabinet and moved a few things before pulling out a bottle of bubble bath mix, he’d gotten it the last time they went to the space mall. Keith went wild when he saw it, pointing to the picture on the bottle. 

“Bubbles!!!” He squealed as Lance poured a generous amount into the tub. He was going to keep things as modest as possible for Keith’s sake. 

“Oh God, you’re going to kill me when you get back to normal.” He muttered to himself as he picked Keith up and sat him on the counter so he could remove his tiny boots and socks. Keith smiled at Lance the whole time, telling him all about how his favorite soap was the kind that smelled like strawberries. This sort of made sense to Lance because he always thought he smelled the familiar fruit whenever the boy was around. “Strawberry is a good flavor.” Lance mused as he objectively stripped Keith down the rest of the way and got him in the bathtub quickly. 

“Look at all the bubbles!” Keith shrieked, picking up handfuls and blowing at them. He held some out for Lance to look at. “See Lancey!? Look!” He shouted playfully. Lance nodded and let Keith play around as he got to work washing and conditioning his hair for him. Keith didn’t seem to have a care in the world as Lance cleaned the goo out of his hair and then eventually rubbed a soapy washcloth over his body to clean him, he was too busy floating the bottles of soap around like they were rubber duckies. When Lance finished washing Keith he let the little boy have a few more minutes of play time before he got a nice fluffy towel ready and held hands out.

“Alright, before you get all wrinkly, let’s get you out of there.” Lance chuckled. “Stand up buddy.” He instructed, the boy actually let Lance pick him up and then dry him off before the towel was securely wrapped around him. “Your clothes are all sticky and wet, we need to find Allura so she can give you something to wear.” He explained. 

“Okay.” Keith didn’t exactly love being carried through the hallways in only a towel, but he behaved for Lance. When they finally found Allura in the royal family’s long abandoned quarters Lance grinned, trying to be friendly. 

“What’ve you got for us Princess?” Lance asked, readjusting Keith on his hip. Allura sighed. 

“A tiny red headache.” She told Lance snippily, glowering at Keith for a moment before her eyes flashed back to Lance. She didn’t exactly love rummaging around in her late parents’ room, and she’d already expressed her annoyance with Keith’s current situation. “I found a few things but they mostly belonged to me from back when I was a young child.” 

“I not want to wear girl clothes!” Keith pouted. Allura glared at him. 

“You should be grateful you’re getting any clothes at all!” She told him. Lance raised his eyebrows, this sort of behavior was so unlike Allura. He held Keith away from her and shushed him.

“Thank’s Allura. I guess we can just stop off at the space mall and find a few things for him there.” He saw she was about to object, but he raised a hand to stop her. “Maybe we can find something that will be useful in solving our little problem while we’re there.” He suggested, giving her a pointed look before gesturing to Keith with his eyes. Allura seemed to calm down a little when she caught on.

“Right. Good idea Lance.” She actually smiled. “I’ll set our course to the space mall and let the others know what’s happening.”


	5. Chapter 5

“There! All finished!” Lance declared, sitting back a little bit once he finished dressing Keith in the clothes Allura had given them. Keith looked beyond annoyed by the frills on the outfit. All of Allura’s hand-me-downs were either pink, lacy, or frilly, most of them were a combination of the three.

“I not like it.” Keith whined, pulling at the slightly big outfit. Lance had picked out the palest pink of all the clothes, hoping he could convince Keith it was off-white, but the ruffles on the sleeves didn’t help anything. He couldn’t believe this was all Allura had to offer the poor boy. 

“It’s not that bad Keith, I promise.” Lance reassured him, he actually thought Keith looked adorable, but he didn’t say that out loud. “Here, why don’t you lay down? You can take a little nap and by the time you wake up we’ll be closer to the mall.” As he spoke he picked the little boy up and laid him down in his bed. 

“I’s not sleepy.” Keith tried to argue as Lance brought the blankets up around him and tucked them in around his little body. Lance knew this game though, all of the little ones he’d helped put to bed back on Earth had said the same thing right before they were fast asleep too. 

“Close your eyes mi cielito.” Lance hummed and gently carded his fingers through the boy’s dark hair. He was still amazed by how soft it was, he hadn’t pictured Keith as being one to take care of his hair, still, Lance shoved the thoughts away in favor of humming a little lullabye to Keith. It didn’t take long for the little boy’s eyes to grow heavier and heavier before they closed altogether and Lance found that he was fast asleep. He leaned down and kissed Keith’s forehead before quietly tiptoeing out of the room, he needed to clean up the messes the tiny boy had made in the bathroom and in the kitchen before Allura found them and completely lost her mind over it. 

It didn’t take Lance long to clean up the water Keith had managed to cover the bathroom in. He even took the time to scrub the goo out of tiny set of clothes Keith had been wearing and hung them to dry in the tub so Keith could wear them again later. Once all the soaps and shampoos were back in order, Lance made his way to the kitchen where he found Shiro had just finished cleaning up Keith’s other mess. 

“I couldn’t help it. I’ve been cleaning up after that kid for so long now it seems like second nature.” Shiro laughed a little and threw the last of his paper towels into the trash. “How are you holding up? If you need a break from him I’d be happy to look after him for a little while.” 

“Thanks, but I’m okay, I don’t mind watching him.” Lance smiled and leaned against the counter. “He’s the sweetest little thing.” He found himself thinking of Keith’s little laugh and how cute it was that he followed Lance around so closely now, he blushed then, remembering Shiro was there. “I uh, just put him down for a nap, I needed to clean up the bathroom and the spill in here… which um… thank you, for doing that.” He cleared his throat. Shiro nodded, leaning against the table across from the counter. 

“That’s good, you shouldn’t take too long though, you’ll want to get back to him before he wakes up.” He frowned slightly, he didn’t really want to elaborate, but the words had reminded Lance of the question he’d had earlier. 

“Hey, I need to ask you something about Keith.” Lance started, looking down at the floor with a frown. “Earlier, I made him some of the food goo and sat him down at the table with it and he was fine, but as soon as I went to go get him some juice out of the chiller he freaked out.” Lance gripped the edge of the counter as he remembered how afraid Keith had been that Lance was going to leave him. “He was screaming at me, begging me not to leave?” 

“And then he was clingy.” Shiro already knew. “Yeah, I know how he can be.” He sighed. “I didn’t really want to have to get into it.” Shiro looked at Lance very seriously. “If I talk to you about it you have to promise you aren’t going to use it against him later on when he’s back to normal.” 

“I would never do that!” Lance shouted too quickly. “I mean… I would never use something so personal to hurt him like that.” He could already see that Shiro was ready to throw the term ‘rivals’ around, but he held up a hand to silence him. “Keith’s not my rival anymore! I’m not going to do that!” Shiro looked at Lance for a long time before he pinched the bridge of his nose and sighed. 

“Keith has really deep set abandonment issues. He has for as long as I’ve known him.” He shook his head. “I’m convinced that’s why he’s so rough around the edges… he’s too afraid to let anyone be close to him again.” Lance looked confused. 

“Abandonment issues?” He asked, wanting clarification. Shiro nodded, looking to the door of the kitchen to make sure nobody else was coming in. 

“Yes. His mother left him when he was a baby and his father became a little distant with him. I don’t think he entirely meant to be that way, but Mr. Kogane sort of threw himself at his work, after he lost his wife. He was a firefighter, ironic enough considering Keith’s the guardian Paladin of fire. But anyway, Mr. Kogane was constantly picking up extra shifts and leaving Keith all by himself until one morning Keith woke up and he was all alone. He found out on the news that his father had died in a fire he’d been called to in the middle of the night. It took a few months before child protective services even found out that Keith was living all alone in his parents apartment, his father never told anyone Keith existed, you know, because he’s half alien. Looking back he was probably trying to protect Keith, but Keith was only eight at the time, he needed someone to care for him.” Shiro looked pained as he recounted the story. Lance was too shocked to even say anything, so the story continued. “After that Keith lived in an orphanage from the time he was eight until the time I met him when he was twelve. There were various families who tried to foster him and ended up giving up on him after a little while. Almost all of them called him unlovable, said he wasn’t worth the trouble he caused. Keith has never directly told me this, but I think some of them may have abused him whenever he messed up or got in trouble, which if you know the kid…” Shiro shook his head and rubbed his hands over his face. “In the beginning, Keith was always very afraid I was going to hit him if he got in trouble at school, one time I even found him packing his things because he was insisting that I was going to give him back like everyone else did.” Shiro looked a little overwhelmed then, his eyes misty. “Then a few years later I thought he knew better, thought he knew I loved him as if he were my own kid and I told him I was going to space. I thought he’d understand, but he was very distant after that. Oh my God you should have seen his face the day of the launch… I felt like such an asshole, but I was stupid and selfish and went anyway because I thought it would be my last chance.” Shiro looked pained. “My… er... I had someone who promised he’d watch over Keith… but he was so angry with me that he left Keith all alone again. Then the Galra captured me and I didn’t come home, so in Keith’s eyes, I abandoned him too.” 

“Wow…” Was all Lance could manage. He couldn’t even remember how many times he’d thrown things in Keith’s face that would have made him feel even worse about his terrible childhood. No wonder the guy had issues! No wonder he had gotten so upset when he thought Lance was leaving him, he must still have that fear of being alone buried somewhere deep down even now. “If I had known―” Shiro raised a hand to cut him off. 

“He doesn’t want anyone to know. You can’t ever tell him I told you all of this… not unless he tells you first someday.” Shiro warned, he didn’t want this to be another example of somebody close to Keith letting him down. Lance nodded. 

“Yeah. I can see why he’d be so afraid of me leaving h… im alone!” Lance frowned when he realized that was exactly what he’d done then. Keith was alone sleeping in his room, but if he woke up alone? Lance didn’t even want to think about it. “Shit! I have to go Shiro!” Lance yelled. He was about to start running back to his bedroom to find Keith, but he only made it about three steps before the entire castle shook and the power shut down. Shiro immediately went into leader-mode and stood. “Get to Blue, if we’re under attack we’re going to need everyone we’ve got!”


	6. Chapter 6

“Let’s go team!” Shiro yelled through the helmet communicators to Pidge, Hunk, and Lance. Allura and Coran were in the control room tracking four personalized flight ships trying to engage the Castle. It had taken them a little bit of time to get the power back on.

“Pidge! On your left!” Allura yelled, already working to bring the particle barrier up around the Castle. Pidge was already on it, trying to blast at the ship rushing her. 

“It’s Lotor!” She yelled after a very narrow dodge. “He must have Ezor, Zethrid, and Axca with him!” She called to the rest of the team after realizing Allura was tracking four assailants. 

“We don’t have Keith, we can’t form Voltron!” Hunk cried, already engaged in a little back and forth fire with Zethrid’s ship. Lance was trying to take care of the other two generals while Shiro raced to follow Pidge, but as soon as Ezor and Axca noticed Lotor chasing after the Green Lion the two of them fell in line and started pursuit behind Black and Shiro, Zethrid wasn’t far behind, they were trying to pick the Lion’s off one by one. 

“Paladins! We can’t form Voltron and we aren’t prepared for a fight now!” She sounded annoyed by Keith’s absence once again. “Pidge and Shiro, can you both lead Lotor and his generals far enough away that we can wormhole out of here?” She cried. 

“On it!” The Green and Black Paladins answered, letting Lance and Hunk fall back while Allura hurried to fire up the teleduv. 

“Come on, come on!” Shiro yelled, watching for the wormhole to open up, as soon as he saw it he hit the brakes and turned Black around fast. “Pidge! Use Green’s cloaking device and get the hell out of there!” He called. 

“Will do!” Pidge nodded, avoiding a blast at the last second. Ezor ended up blasting Lotor’s ship, which in turn sent him flying into Zethrid. Pidge hit her cloaking device too, thinking that everyone was accounted for, it really wasn’t her fault that she had lost Axca in the scuffle, everything had happened way too quickly. Besides that, Axca could disguise her ship too.

“All clear?” Shiro asked as Pidge came sailing through the wormhole. 

“All clear!” She confirmed, not realizing Axca had followed her through as the wormhole had disappeared. 

“Great… let’s get back inside now!” Lance called, already racing for the Blue Lion’s bay, he needed to get to Keith. Everyone managed to get their Lion into their respective hangars without incident and as soon as Shiro had everyone sound off and deemed everyone accounted for Lance was racing down the hall to their sleeping quarters. He could hear the sound of little fists pounding on the door, screaming and choked cries coming from the other side of it.

“Keith!” Lance cried out horsley, the power outage must have shorted out the locking device, not that Keith would have been able to reach to open the door anyway. Lance slammed his palm against the pad on the door and waited impatiently for it to open. “Keith! Keith I’m here buddy!” He fell to his knees before the screaming child and collected him into his arms.

“Where was you!?” Keith choked, his face was blotchy red and he was crying hysterically as he locked his arms around Lance and didn’t let go. Lance curled in on Keith and held him tight against his body, cradling the boy’s head gently. He grit his teeth as he remembered his talk with Shiro, tears of his own slipping down his cheeks because he’d made this little boy so scared. 

“I’m here buddy. I’m right here.” He whispered, rocking Keith as he screamed. The child was gasping and choking on his own breaths, tears coming out in buckets. 

“I waked up and you was gone!” Keith accused, tears and snot finding its way onto Lance’s armor. “It was dark and scary and loud!” He choked, absolutely devastated. Lance could feel his heart sinking as Keith shook in his arms. 

“I never should have left you cariño. I’m sorry.” Lance let his own tears flow freely down his cheeks, all he could picture was this little baby ending up the way Shiro had told him in the kitchen. “I’m so sorry Keithy, I’m so, so sorry.” Lance kissed the top of the little boy’s head over and over, letting him burrow into him. Keith hiccuped a little bit as he tried to find his breath and Lance shook his head, finally picking Keith up and bringing him to the bed. He sat the little boy down and knelt before him, wiping his eyes and nose before he handed him the water pouch sitting on the night table. “Have a sip sweetie, calm down.” Lance rubbed some of the hair out of Keith’s eyes as he took a few breathless gulps of water. “Better?” Lance asked as he traded Keith the water pouch for a tissue. 

“Here.” Keith sniffed, holding the dirty tissue out for the older boy. Lance didn’t even care, he took the tissue and disposed of it, getting a fresh one to finish cleaning Keith’s face up. 

“Listen to me.” Lance started, holding onto Keith’s little shoulders, he needed him to understand. “I am never, ever going to leave you.” He whispered, choking a little bit as a few more tears spilled, he was sick over hurting this little boy. “I promised you I was going to keep you safe, right?” 

“Uh huh.” Keith squeaked, nodding his little head at Lance’s words. Lance nodded back, happy Keith understood at least that much. 

“Sometimes in order for me to do that I can’t be right there beside you, okay? Sometimes I need my friends to help me keep you safe. Remember? The friends you saw in the common room the other night?” He whispered and looked at him intently, waiting for a sign he understood what he was talking about. Keith gave a small nod. 

“Yeah.” He mumbled. Lance smiled softly. 

“Well they were helping me keep you safe.” He gently rubbed Keith’s cheek. “I’ll always come back to you, one way or another.” He promised softly. “Even when things are back to normal…” Lance started to realize. Keith dragged him out of his thoughts though as he lurched forward and pulled Lance into a tight hug. 

“I never wants you to go bye bye again.” Keith told him tiredly, squeezing him close. Lance nodded and rested his chin on top of Keith’s head as he held him back. 

“I’m going to try my very best not to corazón.” He whispered. Keith held his pinky out for Lance. 

“Promise?” He sniffed, looking up at Lance with wide eyes. Lance smiled softly back at him and wrapped his pinky around Keith’s. 

“I promise sweetie.” He whispered and hugged him closer. “Come on let’s go back to sleep for a little while, we’re almost at the mall. I’ll stay right here with you this time.” Lance whispered, shifting so he could take off the outer layer of his armor. Keith made room on the bed for Lance to lay down beside him. 

“What is we gonna do at the mall?” Keith yawned, curling into Lance, holding onto the thin black material of Lance’s spacesuit as if it would somehow keep him from leaving again. Lance rubbed Keith’s tiny cheek. 

“Well, we’re going to get you some clothes to wear that aren’t pink or girly first of all. Second of all, we can get some food, maybe look around at some of the shops? Anything you want to do little buddy.” Lance answered quietly, trying to keep his voice soft so that Keith could go to sleep, he even rubbed his back a little bit. Keith in turn patted Lance’s belly as he started to go to sleep, really just wanting the comfort of knowing Lance was there.

The two of them were almost all the way asleep when Hunk knocked on the door and peeked his head in. “Hey Lance… so I have a little bit of bad news for you.” He tiptoed in, trying not to disturb the sleeping four year old. “You know how the power to the ship failed?”

“Yeah?” Lance yawned, instinctively pulling Keith closer to him to keep him safe. “What about it?” 

“Pidge’s laptop was plugged into the mainframe and we lost everything. We don’t even have a trace of the sequences that Keith entered when he fell into the pod. Our only hope of getting it back is finding a rare part that one of Coran’s connections at the space mall may or may not have…” Lance drew in deep breath and snuggled Keith.

“I’m going to take care of him for as long as it takes Hunk. I promised him.” Lance carded his fingers through Keith’s hair. “So if you’re trying to scare me away from him it’s not going to work.” 

“That’s not why I was telling you. I just figured we should keep you in the loop about what’s going on with him.” Hunk told him softly, watching how gentle Lance was with the little boy.

“Well thanks, Hunk.” Lance sighed and gave him a tight smile. “Will you do me a favor and wake us up when we get to the mall? He’s had a really tough day and I want to let him sleep.” Lance whispered. Hunk nodded softly and smiled. 

“Course! Goodnight Lance.”


End file.
